1. Field of the Invention
A method of manufacturing a composite insert, useful as a structural and/or acoustic insert in a vehicle, as well as a method of manufacturing a composite part including the composite insert and a carrier, and inserts, parts and pre-packaged inserts and parts, made by these processes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Traditional structural and acoustic inserts are manufactured from solid reactive compositions under high temperature and high pressure via injection molding or extrusion conditions. These prior art conditions require significant time and process control monitoring during manufacturing to maintain optimum equipment operating conditions and product quality. For example, since high temperature conditions are used, the temperatures of the equipment and the composition must be closely monitored to keep the reactive composition below its cure temperature. Due to the high heat input needed to make prior art solid compositions moldable or extrudable, the molded or extruded insert must be given a significant period of time to cool after forming to reduce damage and/or deformation of the insert during removal from a mold or other handling; this leads to increased cycle times. The pressure of injection is typically high, meaning in the range of 400 bar up to 1000 bar. Since high pressures are used, the molds, dies and other equipment used to injection mold or extrude under these conditions can be expensive. Carriers used in the molding process must also be designed to withstand these high pressures. After forming, the high pressure injection molded parts must be demolded, while extruded strips are typically cut into inserts. The prior art inserts and parts then go through the additional step of individual packaging, after which they are shipped, unpackaged and eventually placed in a vehicle at a final assembly location.
Since extruded parts start out as strips of extruded material and must be cut to size, another drawback of extruded parts is the limited geometry available. Due to the nature of the extrusion process, which produces a strip by passing material through a die, the resulting part has geometries available in the x, y planes, but very limited geometry in the z-plane where the strip is divided into lengths to form the parts.